Compact work light with high illumination uniformity

Abstract

A compact work light that generates a light beam having high brightness and high illumination uniformity is disclosed. The work light includes a housing that houses a light source, a light homogenizer and an imaging lens in an operational relationship. The housing is attached to an adjustable mount, which can be attached to a fixed region such as wall, or to a movable support member such as a lamp base. The light source generates light that is uniformized by the light homogenizer. The homogenized light is then imaged by the imaging lens as a highly uniform, bright beam spot having a sharp boundary. The beam spot is formed at a selectable distance from the work light by varying the imaging lens and / or the adjustable mount. The work light is useful for a variety of industrial, professional and personal applications, including but not limited to a reading light, a dentist light, a head lamp, a head light and an optical projector.

Description

[0001] This patent application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 794,073, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 068,366, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,746,124, filed on Feb. 5, 2002, which in turn claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 266,589, filed Feb. 6, 2001.BACKGROUND INFORMATION[0002] 1. Field of the Invention[0003] This invention relates to work lights, and in particular to work lights having high brightness and a high degree of illumination uniformity.[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art[0005] The flashlight was invented in 1898 by Conrad Hubert who turned a metal tube, a light bulb and a battery into the world's first flashlight. Little has changed in flashlight technology since then. Today's flashlight technology is based on locating a tungsten lamp or bulb at the focus of a parabolic reflector and simply imaging the filament out into object space. The reflector may be of other shapes and may be f...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

A significant problem with the current flashlight technology is that the crude image (usually a circular spot) varies significantly in its intensity.

While some flashlights permit the user to vary or adjust the size of the pattern, it is generally highly non-uniform in intensity over the spot.

Another problem is that the light spills out to a wide area outside of the intended spot area.

Another problem is that the crude image cast by a conventional flashlight makes it difficult in many circumstances to clearly see the object of interest.

Another problem is that the illuminated area of prior art flashlights tends to be unattractive and unfamiliar.

Unfortunately, conventional flashlights do not provide such illumination.

In the cases where such lights attempt to achieve even a modest amount of illumination uniformity, they are usually immense, cumbersome, unwieldy and / or inefficient.

Packaged LEDs can be used in the present invention, but the optical coupling between the light pipe and a packaged LED tends to be less efficient than that for die-level LEDs.

However, in other example embodiments, main light pipe can be untapered.

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